NEW CONSTITUTION WOULD CHANGE 1975 COUNCIL ELECTIONS
Later this year, resident tribal members will go to the polls to elect five persons to sit on the tribal council. But whether or not all five will be district representatives... will be running for two or four year terms and whether they will be elected in:Nov-ember or December...depends on if the balloting is conduct-
ed under the old, 1935, tribal constitution or a proposed new governing document. These are among several differences in election proceed-ures between the current 39-year old constitution and a new one drafted a year-ago by a ten member constitutional committee.
Under the old constitution,
any number of candidates for five council seats may file up to 15 days before the election (.which would be held on December 20 under the old rules.) A list of candidates would be placed at voting precincts ten days prior to the balloting. On election day, voters would go to the polls to choose from several candidates for each
contested district (in 1972 there were a total of 35 council candidates with as many as eight running for one district seat.) The winner under the old ] procedure^ is the candidate with the most votes, but not necessarily a majority of votes (in 1972, for instance, only one candidate was fav-
ELECTIONS (Cont. on page 2)
THE NEWSPAPER OF THE SALISH, PEND d ORIELLES AND KOOTENAI TRIBES OF THE FLATHEAD RESERVATION
15 C
HARKOOSTA
Volume 4 - Number 17 NEW MOON OF THE WANDERING Jan. 1,197 5
SEEKING HOT SPRINGS DOCTOR
Hot Springs: The Tribe has agreed to back the Sanders County Commissioners in seeking federal assistance for the community of Hot Springs.
The Tribal Council met with Area Public Health Director James Smith Dec. 16, and received his support for an application for National Health Service assistance. The National Health Service, which is a sister agency of the Public Health Service under the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, provides medical officers and money to communities with sub-standard health facitilites.
Hot Springs has been without a doctor for about a month and the small hospital there was closed because of a state requirement for a resident physician. Health needs for Hot Springs residents are currently being met at Plains, some 40 miles west, and St.Ignatius which is about 35 miles east.
PHS DENTIST IN POLSON BY JUNE
Poison: The tribe and the Indian Health Service have put together a plan which will bring direct dental services to Poison by June.
The plan, according to Dr. Merlin Johnson, Area IHS Dental Health Officer, would eliminate contract dental services for Indians in the northern portion of the reservation. Johnson said that eligible Indians from Ronan to Dayton would come under the same direct dental care that is currently available at the Flathead Health Center in St.Ignatius.
Johnson met with the tribal council Dec. 18 to work out the final details of the plan. The tribe, for its part, would fund a building for the dental health clinic with $25,000 in federal revenue sharing monies. According to the plan, the building would be a double-wide trailer home 23 feet by 36 feet to be located on a tri-bally owned lot in Poison. The cost of the building will probably range between $20 and $25-thousand, according to estimates. The clinic building
would consist of two lental rooms, a lab and a darkroom, an office and a waiting room. The tribe will call for bids on the building this month and it is hoped that construction will begin during February.
When the building is finished, hopefully in May, PHS has a special $50,000 appropriation which will be used to equip the facility. The money will be used to buy two dental chairs and related equipment, a complete dental lab and a X-ray cameras and e-quipment. If all goes well, the clinic will open in May, according to Johnson.
Staffing the new Poison clinic would be no problem once it is built, according to Johnson. He said that one of the two dentists currently stationed at thè Health Clinic in St. Ignatius is now on "loan" from Browning. He said that
under the current agreement the second dental spot would return to Browning after July 1, -'unless the Poison clinic is finished." He said it was a DENTIST l (Cont. on page 7 )
HIGH COURT RULES ON
SMOKESHOPS
Washington: The U.S. Suprem Court has refused to review dt cisions by two Idaho courts that permit members of the Couer d' Alene Tribe to sell untaxed cigarettes. The decision will probably have an effect on the two-year old cigarette tax case on the Flatheac Reservation.
The nation's highest court turned down an appeal by the states of Montana, Nevada and Washington to review the the Idaho Mahoney case. An Idaho district court and the state supreme court found that the state had no jurisdiction to require John George Mahoney to charge sales tax on cigarettes sold on the Coeu 'd Alene Reservation. By refuf ing to review the lower court decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court is allowing these decisic to stand
SMOKES (Cont. on page 2)